Mumbai, Sept. 5 -- The State Bank of India's (SBI) successful dollar-bond issue at a relatively low risk premium over the benchmark US yield is expected to encourage more domestic corporates to tap this route to raise funds, according to experts.

India's largest lender by assets raised $500 million on Tuesday through five-year senior unsecured fixed-rate notes, carrying a coupon of 4.5% payable semi-annually, according to a stock exchange filing. Given that the five-year US Treasury was at 3.74%, the spread over it would be around 75 basis points.

"SBI's issuance at just 75 basis points over US Treasuries sets a new yardstick for Indian borrowers in the global markets," said Vineet Agrawal, co-founder of Jiraaf, an online bond platform ...